The term “inventory counts” has been used in the retail industry for many years. Acquiring accurate inventory counts is both an extremely critical yet time consuming process that every retailer needs to undertake. Timely and accurate inventories are key components in assuring readiness and/or profitability. In the retail field, an inaccurate inventory can not only misrepresent, e.g., a store's performance, but it can also have ripple effects that can affect a store's subsequent years' performance. Oftentimes, the accuracy of inventory can be the difference between profit and loss, and proper analytical decisions based upon accurate data is thus essential to retailers' success. Of course, inventory analysis is not limited to the retail industry, but is also important in manufacturing, the pharmacy and medical fields, military settings, or any other field in which tracking of individual items might be needed.
With the introduction of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, it is now possible to operate remote scanners to read RFID tags on individual merchandise or items and automatically record inventory information. However, RFID data cannot determine accurate locations of tagged items. This results in situations where workers may have difficulty finding/physically locating specific items when they are clearly in the inventory.